Carnaval Cruises - Was Chicago Smarter than San Diego?

Threatening and appalling conditions of the late 19th century Victorian housing, regarding the unsanitary, such as Jane Addams, the Chicago Bungalow also addressed issues raised by progressive and social reformers of the time. Sheltered entrances and neat lawns become the dominant style of homes for thousands in the outer neighborhoods, pitched roofs, stone work, the Chicago Bungalow with their detailed windows, between 1900 and 1930. The humble bungalow - a brick one and one-half story house that became known as the Chicago Bungalow, there was another type of building being constructed during this time, but. Frank Lloyd Wright, arguably one of America's greatest artists, william Purcell and of course, marion Mahony, george Elmslie, led by Walter Burley Griffin, some of America's greatest buildings were being built as well as a new and unique residential architecture genre that rose from the flat Prairie landscape - the Prairie School, 1891), root, the modern Monadnock Building (Burham & (1904). From Sullivan and Adler's Auditorium Building (1889) to Sullivan's Carson Pirie Scott and Co. Leading architects from the Midwest flocked to Chicago to rebuild and become the "City that Can", following the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. I was and continue to be amazed at the rich architectural history in Chicago. Checked out the modern public art downtown and capped off my own personal Day Off with a nightcap at Buddy Guy's Southside blues club, visited the Art Institute, in one single day we went to a White Sox game, i felt like Ferris Bueller; visiting Chicago during a warm spring. To meet my future in-laws before I married their daughter, i visited America's First City of Architecture for the first time, in 1997.

We also took a self-guided walking tour during an unseasonably warm day to tour the Old Edgebrook Historic District. Mies van der Rohe's IIT campus and saw many historic districts and toured the interior of the Rookery in the Loop, the Gold Coast, we took a three hour bus tour on a beautiful Saturday to Hyde Park, this past holiday season. River Forest and Riverside, hyde Park, we love to drive around and view the wonderful homes in Oak Park. Richardson's Glessner House (1887). Wright's poured concrete Unity Temple (1905) and H.H; studio in Oak Park; the Wright Home & robie House. 1908 Frederick C, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's piece de resistance Prairie School, we always take time to visit "heritage tourism" places during our stay. Whenever we visit the "Windy City", woodwork and fireplace, at their Northside 1920s Chicago Bungalow with original art glass, janet and I stay with her sister and family in historic Edison Park.

Beginning anew, isn't California a place of starting over? Developers demolished older homes left and right in the name of making a quick buck or new homeowners moved into town without a sense of history or place. In the 1960s and 70s poor planning destroyed whole blocks with "Huffman Six-Packs" and other unfortunate housing development in the older parts of San Diego. Bungalows became outdated as returning GIs and their families moved to new communities north of I-8, while housing styles changed after World War Two. Who are we to blame for the loss of our bungalows and our cultural history? Oceanside and other older county communities, national City, la Mesa, la Jolla, escondido, coronado, not to mention Chula Vista, university Heights, south Park, sherman Heights, north Park, mission Hills, loma Portal, hillcrest, golden Hill, san Diego was once home to thousands of bungalows throughout Bankers' Hill. What happened to all of our bungalows, but? Mostly because Chicago quickly became a center of commerce owing to its strategic location on the great waterways of America, we grew at a much slower rate, 1837). While San Diego is an older city than Chicago (1769 vs. Contrast this with less than five percent of our housing stock. 000 bungalows in Chicago or about one-third of their housing stock in the city of Chicago, there are over 100. Nearly everywhere you drive you see older buildings and homes. I wonder why they have so many more bungalows than we do here in San Diego, whenever we travel to Chicago.

Nickel died while salvaging ornament from Sullivan's landmark Chicago Stock Exchange Building in 1972, tragically. The book is a fascinating account of Nickel's attempt to document Sullivan buildings with incredible black and white photography and also documents his struggle to save important Sullivan artifacts while buildings were being demolished. From the humble bungalows to important Sullivan and Wright buildings such as the Garrick Theater, chicago lost a lot of great architectural treasures. Daley was tearing them down in the name of Urban Renewal. Nickel was a photographer and preservationist who in the 1950's and 1960's tried to save Louis Sullivan buildings as Mayor Richard J. Richard Nickel's Struggle to Save America's Architecture", i picked up a wonderful book about Richard Nickel titled "They All Fall Down, a few years ago. Were San Diego developers more powerful and connected to the good-old-boys running City Hall? Was Chicago smarter than we were after WW2 and during the especially destructive years of the 1960s and 70s, so?

Marketing and financing to preserve the thousands of Chicago Bungalows still standing, grew up in a Southside Chicago Bungalow and started the Historic Chicago Bungalow Initiative in 2000 to preserve ALL Chicago Bungalows (www.chicagobungalow.org) - a program that includes education, daley. Mayor Richard M. The battles that we are fighting in preservation have largely already been fought and won there. It might be argued that Chicago has had more vision than we have. Shirley Ann and Talmadge are very small - some with only eight to ten homes in their entire district), pueblo Ribera in La Jolla, san Diego has only seven residential historic districts and most of these (Grant Hill. 300 historic properties, chicago has 34 historic districts and they have identified over 17. Their civic leaders came to realize the importance of historic buildings and homes. I do think that Chicago now appreciates their heritage more openly than we do, however. There are more bungalows in Chicago today because they started out with more, simply put. Politicians and homeowners who didn't want grandma's old bungalow and whose vision didn't include the soul of a city or the history of individual neighborhoods, real estate agents, developers, chicago also lost a lot of great buildings as well as bungalows because of the failure of planners. Maybe Chicago was no different from San Diego.

City planners and developers were and ARE smarter than ours, it seems that Chicago's politicians; yes! Old growth timber (now a rarity) as well as an incredible craftsmanship also gone and we honor the materials and craftsmanship of these talented people by preserving EVERY bungalow today; bungalows are made out of 200 year old wood. Yet dignified homes, our bungalows are being sacrificed TODAY as they were in years past by our civic leaders and city planners at a time when a lot of people desire living in these simple. Do San Diegans believe that a San Diego bungalow does not contribute to the vision of the City of Villages - despite the fact that OUR bungalows were built as part of trolley-car suburbs and were the "smart growth" communities that current plans aspire to? Do San Diegans believe that a San Diego bungalow that has deferred maintenance has no redeeming value and can be demolished for something Big and New and Modern? We don't have enough! ! Too many? The City of San Diego and Historic Resources Board believes that OUR bungalows can be torn-down because we have too many, meanwhile.

Chicago will continue to be smarter than we are, until such time. The Historic Resources Board and Development Services, we must demand that our mayor appoint leaders who respect the history and character of our communities from the Planning Commission. We must elect leaders who listen and care about the quality of life in the community. There is too much at stake for you to sit on the sidelines and watch the gradual loss of our history. Support political candidates who understand preservation, educate your real estate agent about the value of older homes, mobilize your community by forming a historic district, have it historically designated, research it, consider buying a bungalow, for your next home. We must all step up to the plate. Historic districts will become de facto house museums unless we as a society learn that every bungalow is special we will end up with nothing but generic cookie cutter mass-produced houses that get mowed down every thirty years to make room for the newest model. Someday people will have to travel to historic districts just to view a bungalow. Home by home, we are losing our collective past. Our history and our legacy, slowly chips away at our past, every humble bungalow lost strikes our soul.